Arco Arena had a very solid crowd for the show. It was a success, undoubtedly. I think the only regret was Faber not fighting in the main event and giving the fans a nice send-off home. Other than that, really, you couldn’t complain about the card and the way it played out. Demetrious Johnson came through in the clutch and was coming off a 3-plus month training camp with Bibiano Fernandes & Tim Boetsch. Matt Hume remains one of the elite coaches in MMA.

Joe Rogan acted like he bet a ton of money on Chad Mendes because he was riding that guy’s ass the whole time during his fight with Nik Lentz. Lentz is not a pushover and you had to expect the fight to play out the way it did. Mendes claimed he was dealing with a serious sinus infection.

The UFC likes to pay to bring in an out-of-state judge for events. In California, Derek Cleary from Georgia seems to get that nod. This has not gone unnoticed amongst other California judges, who (on background) are pissed at what they see as cronyism. That said, it’s hard to find one criticism to level against the judges who worked Saturday’s show. They did their job in not screwing up. They made the right calls.

Dan Collins, the controversial Northern California boxing referee who yells at Andy Foster, was on camera a lot because he was the main timekeeper. He wore a striped shirt. He looked like a grinning goof the whole time. There were others cageside who should have been paying attention to fights but were busy on their cell phones. They know who they are (and probably are reading this right now). You know better.

Three focal points in the show’s aftermath

What’s next for Demetrious Johnson? He’s cleaned out the Flyweight division. And I don’t think many saw Scott Jorgensen losing. The name John Dodson keeps getting mentioned, but DJ just finished him. DJ is one of the best talkers in the UFC and really comes off well on camera. And yet it seems like UFC is kind of boxed in as to where to go next with him. Ironically, given what he did to Joe Benavidez, DJ’s best option for a money fight would be a catch-weight bout at 130 pounds versus Urijah Faber. That doesn’t appear to be in the cards, however.

Urijah Faber wants the winner of Renan Barao vs. Dominick Cruz. Can Faber break his Susan Lucci curse of being second-place by beating either guy for the title? I’m not sure the fans will feel confident enough to shell out PPV cash to see a rematch on this front. If he could make 130, a fight with DJ would give him a match that I think fans would be interested in paying to watch. But that’s not where this is heading.

No talk about the Welterweight division. A day after GSP announced his hiatus from the UFC and vacating of the Welterweight title, not a word on the Fox broadcast about this development. No real discussion about Carlos Condit vs. Matt Brown being canceled and what’s next for Condit. No discussion about whether or not he’s re-matching with Nick Diaz. No mention of Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler on March 15th in Dallas, Texas to crown a new champion. Kind of strange for the UFC to go silent on this topic given the fact that FS1, Sportscenter, and other major media outlets spent Friday discussing GSP’s exit from the company. Dana was busy doing damage control over whether or not he tried to prevent GSP from attending the UFC 167 post-fight press conference. That’s how bad UFC management handled that situation. They’re still trying to put out forest fires they created.

Hi!
‘Joe Rogan […] was riding Chad Mendes’ ass the whole time during his fight with Nik Lentz.’
Feels refreshing that actually somebody is mentioning that.

Sometimes, I think, Rogan actually does morge damage to the fighter’s image because people can get annoyed (I do) at that and associate it with the fighter. The fighter is just inside the cage, doing his thing. It’s not their fault that Rogan is talking that much sh’.
I think he hurt Machida’s career a lot as well, hyping him up soo ridiculously, then the Machida Era stuff and everything.

Is it me, or do Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg have grown to long in the tooth as announcers? Joe Rogan gets SO involved in the fight, especially on the ground, that it sort of ruins it for me. I know that he is knowledgeable and all that, but it just comes across as grating, at least to me.

I think he meant best talker in terms of him having good elocution and being capable of expressing himself without coming off as a meathead. That doesn’t mean he is a great interview (clearly he is not), but it does make him a good spokesman for the brand.

[…] Lentz situation wasn’t the only high-profile corner catch on Saturday night, as there was some queestioning about what Alex Ariza was up to in Marcos Maidana’s corner for the Alamo Dome fight with Adrien Broner. It’s Texas, after […]